Duders - I need Router Help!

Hello!

I need some tech help digesting the slew of options out there. I'll do my best to summarize my situation.

I live in the arctic - I've got STATE OF THE ART (read: shitty) internet at 100mpbs - thats the ceiling for me.

Recently my home wifi has turned to absolute trash, speeds are good but I'm dropping connections constantly which leads me to believe my router is expired and so I'm looking to upgrade.

My wants/needs:

- Consistent coverage across my small, 1100 square foot, single level home.

-Devices in use: (PS5 or XSX or my Work Setup in my office) + My wife's cellphone

-Consistent long range signal strength

Due to the way my house was poorly wired my internet modem and wifi hub is in a poor spot in the middle of the house away from my entertainment system. I'm going to re-wire it myself this summer when I have the time so I can go to a wired connection and run my modem/router from my TV area.

However at the moment my router is trash and I need a fix.

I have a bit money but I what I dont have is free-time and I'd like to not worry about running wires at -40C. I'm kind of in awe at the options available these days for routers. I'd like to be somewhat futureproof and I'd be okay dropping 300 bucks for one of those slick ASUS wifi-6 routers but I dont know if thats worth it for me and my current shitty ceiling of low internet speed. What interests me more is coverage and consistency over speed.

Is it still worth going for one of those slick 350 dollar routers or will I get just as good coverage with a regular 100-150 dollar router? Am I SOL and just need to invest the time to pull wires in my house to find the real solution and go wired for my consoles?

Educate me if interested!

Thanks!

My first advice is be careful about buying Wifi-6 (AKA 802.11ax) for your use case. Wi-fi 6 is terrible at going through normal house walls. The performance advantages that Wifi-6 has are totally negated when the signal has to go through house walls. . SO if you think you use case has walls in-between the access point and they devices you use then think about buying older Wifi-5 equipment (AKA 802.11ac)

My place of work is made 100% of wood, but the walls are thick 1847 wood. When our idiot IT contractor recommended Wifi-6 transceivers I did not think about if they would even work for our use case - THEY DON'T. Our library traditionally had wifi in our garden, next to our building. But the signal is so degraded trying to punch through our teh walls we had to buy special outside antennas for even more money. JMO- Wifi-6 is undermined by the poor signal strength and might be terribel for your use case.

Bottom line: buy a 802.11ac router from decent brand. Do not buy the best router or the most expensive one if it is a Wifi-6 or 802.11ax.

@junkerman: Get a Pfsense with Ubiquiti access point.

Get wifi extenders they work miracles

You will get a hundred different opinions on this topic lol. Personally I would go for one those slick Asus ROG routers and just be done with it. I did just that and it's been the best home networking upgrade I ever made. Easy to use, easy to setup, and it's a beast that looks awesome.

Normally for tech stuff i just go to the wire cutter and pick there best cheap option and am usually happy. They show you all the options like powerline adapters, mesh networks, wi-fi extenders. And down at the bottom they give detailed breakdowns of there tests showing you why they picked these options over the others, even saying how many walls it is going through. And like monkeyking mentioned, it can very much depend on the age of your house how good any wi-fi is going to be. I have a 100 year old house with plaster walls, and the room just above gets spotty wi-fi some times going through a bit of one wall, and the floor. So if you have an old house a mesh network might be the better option. The other thing to note is that 2GHz will go much farther then 5GHz if your router has those options. 2GHz is slower, but i switch to it when wi-fi is getting spotty sometimes, and it normally fast enough for what i am doing.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/electronics/networking/

Things to consider:

1) Either get a router that sells a range extender as an accessory (I wouldn't trust 3rd party extenders off amazon, etc) or a router that works as a "mesh".
1b) Make sure either the range extender or the mesh routers have a LAN port so they can receive the internet over wifi but then send it out wired through the LAN port (because most devices, even the PS5/XBSX have shitty wifi models compared to a lan connection) so you get reliable speeds. Mesh routers IMO do a better job of this than a router + range extender but YMMV.

Things to avoid:

1) Wifi 6 - it won't help with range, speed, or anything at this point and the devices you listed won't ever work with it. IMO you're better off waiting for prices to get down in the future and update whatever you find next to wifi 6 in another couple of years at minimum (if not wait longer).

2) Avoid a single router. You'll either need a mesh system or 1-2 range extenders with given the size of your house if you want good connections. IMO mesh systems are more reliable, and faster even if they are a little pricier.

Things you might be interested in:

1) Depending on the age of your house, how the electrical wires are set up, and how far you are placing them apart you can get a decent set of powerline adapters to give yourself a "wired" connection as an alternative to buying anything router related. I've tried a couple over the years all around the $50 price range and have had decent/good results. You'll take a drop in top speed (wildly varies based on a number of factors) but you will gain reliability. If you think a set might work out it wouldn't hurt to drop a small amount of cash to test them out and see if they help solve your issues in the short term.

Final thoughts:
If you are living in an apartment, townhouse, or anywhere else with a large amount of neighbors then unfortunately wifi will only get you so far no matter what kind of money you spend on a top-end device.